WordPress has evolved into a unique tool for businesses. With WordPress, you can build a blog, a website — or BOTH. It’s so powerful and versatile that you can even use it as your Content Management System (CMS).

What’s more, scores of developers have created free and inexpensive plugins for WordPress to get even more out of this powerhouse tool. These plugins can quickly be added to WordPress to enhance your website’s look, visibility, and functionality — putting you “in the know” and setting you apart from your competition.

Already have a WordPress site up and running? Congrats. You’re a Forward Thinking business. The next step? Optimize your website or blog with 5 (mostly FREE!) WordPress plugins that cover these core areas:

3. Digg Digg | Social Sharing
* Find it online: Bufferapp.com
* Cost: FREE
The Digg Digg plugin adds a floating Share bar to your site or blog so readers can easily forward your content to their social network of choice. Readers can post to multiple accounts (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) quickly and easily from your site.

4. Akismet | Spam Control
* Find it online: Akismet.com
* Cost: FREE for personal use, tiered pricing for businesses
Akismet helps diminish comment spam that often plagues blogs. All blog comments are routed through Akismet servers to detect anything “spammy” and remove it before you even see it, saving you the time of sorting through and deleting human or automated spam comments on your website or blog. Learn More.

5. Google Analyticator | Marketing Analytics
* Find it online: WordPress.org
* Cost: FREE
Adding Google Analytics to your WordPress blog can sometimes be a challenge because you need to modify your template code to enable tracking. This Google Analyticator plugin does all the work for you, then conveniently displays your Google Analytics stats right in your WordPress dashboard. Measure the impact of your content marketing, and gain insights into your visitors’ preferences and trends.

Add these 5 core plugins to your WordPress site or blog to improve functionality today.

The amount of WordPress plugins available are limitless. What would you add to our list of must-have WordPress plugins? Share your ideas below.